Record rains overwhelm some Brevard County sewer plants
Hundreds of thousands of gallons of treated sewage poured into Indian River Lagoon in Titusville as the city's Osprey Water Reclamation Facility was overwhelmed by this past week's 1-in-1,000-year rainstorms. Titusville's reclaimed water spill looks to be the largest wastewater discharge so far into the lagoon, among the several city and county plants overtaxed by the torrential rain on Nov. 1-2 that dumped almost two feet of water in two days in some parts of Brevard County. Although the 313,906 gallons Titusville discharged to the lagoon was "fully treated," like most reclaimed water intended for irrigation, it still contained nitrogen and phosphorus that can fuel excess algae growth, as well as pharmaceuticals, personal care product compounds, household chemicals, hormones and endocrine-disrupting compounds that can harm marine life. Scientists have also found that treated sewage can contain trace levels of PFAS, a large family of persistent synthetic chemicals used in products ranging from firefighting foams to stain-resistant and water-resistant consumer goods. More: See a map of the spills Who spilled what during Nov. 1-2 record rains? According to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection documents, these are among the more salient spills: West Melbourne: At 5 a.m. Nov. 2, about 2.1
